21 Aug 2016

Strawberry Fields

I never realised how relaxing picking your own fruit would
be. Now I can safely say, I would pick raspberries forever if I could.

Having
made a plan months ago to go fruit picking over the summer, my sisters and I
took a day off from work, gathered up my tiny nephew and set off for the fields
of fruit.

As luck would have it, it chucked it down with rain while we
had lunch in Prezzo (hello carbs, love you) but cleared up by the time we got
back to the car and were on our way to Parkside Pick Your Own (PYO) farm.

Grabbing a small trolley, my nephew took over steering it,
or attempting to, as we found the strawberries first. It was busy but with so
many rows and rows of fruit, you wouldn’t even notice the crowds of people.

You walk into the
farm thinking it might be a small few plots of each fruit but they really are
endless. It’s is so easy to get lost in the maze of green. I never expected to
find as many plump and ripe berries as we did, and they do go quick!

You're free to pluck as many pieces of fruit as you may wish to pay for. Raspberries are by far, the most satsifying and easiest to pick. We may have got a tiny bit carried away with those ones.

But in our defence, we had a BBQ with 15 people coming the next day. Plus, who would say no to left over berries? Hello smoothies!

Top tips? Go for
the strawberries underneath the leaves. Everyone goes for the obvious spots and
misses these ones! As for raspberries, reach higher for those ripe ones. Being
tall definitely has its perks when it comes to berry picking!

If you’ve got a PYO farm near you, go and have a
lazy wander in the sunshine. Pick some fruit, soak in the sun and then have a good ol’ picnic or BBQ
with some cream and your freshly picked berries!